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Tag Archives: Pigs

The chicken camper is finished and the girls are being coop trained. We will install the nesting boxes later this spring and my daughter and I will paint the camper.

The ladies will be getting their first taste of the outside world in the next few days when they get to explore their run for the first time. They have grown from the little fluff butts to gorgeous, glossy girls! So far only two have names since they are the only two I can tell apart from their breed mates.

Their run is fenced and will be seeded this weekend. We still need to work on hawk deterrent as there is suddenly a hawk flying around a few times a week that has never been here before. The top of the run will be reinforced this weekend.

It’s been a busy few weeks at the homestead. I’m pretty sure my son is going to grow up thinking everyone has a backhoe in the backyard!

We are anxiously waiting for Big Momma Harriet to calve at the Red Barn. She looks quite the sight at the moment with her heavy belly and half of her winter fur shed out. Last year’s little heifer, Rosabelle, grew like wildfire over the winter. She is nearly as big as her Momma. She is going to be rather cranky when it’s time for Momma and the new calf to move to their own pasture.

We took the kids over to the red barn last weekend and put them both to work. They helped me scrub the summer water tanks, muck the last of the winter manure out of the barn, helped their Papa clean the hay loft, and rode with their Daddy to push the cows to spring pasture. It was a wonderful day of family play without any gadgets or gizmos!

The sow at the farm on the mountain is ready to deliver any day. I love those first few days of new piglets when those little babies are shiny and dainty!

Our plans for this years large garden are under way, with minor setbacks. We started the tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, and broccoli indoors last month then moved them out to the enclosed greenhouse with the rhubarb, strawberries, and currants. We jumped the gun and lost the tomato, brussel sprouts, and peppers last weekend when the temperature dropped suddenly overnight. I’ll be replanting those this weekend.

We spent our Saturday visiting the in-laws at the farm on the Mountain. It was great to relax with family and friends and watch the mud bugs get some sledding time! I love all of the animals at the in-laws, they are characters and always entertaining.

Miss Gracie out for a walk.

I think there might be something good under all this snow.

There’s something cold on my nose…

An intense discussion.

Going somewhere in a hurry.

Changing course.

Feeling left out. Need a hug?

Boo!

Momma. Huge Momma. And not done yet. She will be enormous by April.

She likes her head scratched.

My husband and his tractor have a love hate vibe. I leave them alone to work it out.

Our current efforts at starting our farm are scattered halfway across the county and back. We are blessed to live directly between two of our family farms. One my side of the family, we keep “Big Momma” Harriet and her little heifer from last summer, Rosabelle, at a farm owned by my step-dad about 15 minutes away. We also raise our yearly butcher steer there. My little mud-bugs love to go see “Big Momma” and wait for her new babies to arrive in the spring.

Our pork comes from the pigs at my in-laws farm, where my husband grew up. I love watching those little piggies go from tiny little newborns to fat, happy piggies rooting and digging through the trees! Our current tired old laying hens roam around there, causing all manner of trouble.

Our garden spreads from my backyard, to the in-laws farm (Farm on the Mountain), to my step-dad’s farm (the Red Barn) where he has given me a garden lot that is 300 ft by 30 in between two pastures. The electric fence there should help keep the deer out this summer!